Epic has had a disastrous opening week at the box office, a stark contrast to the massive expectations riding on it going in.
Where the Expectations Came From
The film carried big anticipation for good reason, it’s a continuation of 90’s – A Middle Class Biopic, one of Telugu audiences’ most-loved web series, reuniting Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya, the hit pair from Baby. Produced by Naga Vamsi, the film also had its songs working well ahead of release, adding to the positivity and buzz.
Where It Went Wrong
Everything changed with the trailer. The response to it worked against the film in a big way, killing the buzz just before release. Despite that, the makers went ahead with confidence and screened paid premieres , but with the content failing to meet audience expectations, the film simply did not work at the box office.
The Numbers
For the entire first week, Epic has collected around ₹7.5 Cr, with overseas adding roughly $250K, taking total worldwide collections to the ₹10 Cr range. Against a breakeven requirement of ₹25 Cr, the recovery stands at just 40%, and the film is already failing to recover theatrical rents given the low occupancies across shows. The second weekend is expected to be the closing numbers for the film, and that weekend isn’t expected to add much either.
The Fallout
With this outcome, the distributors involved stand to lose roughly half of their invested amount, making Epic a big failure at the box office.
